Spirited Vacation: Touring Historic Cemeteries
Have you ever wandered into an historic graveyard, while on vacation, just to read the tombstone engravings and ponder about what American life was like a century or two ago?
You are not alone.
In fact, dropping in on cemeteries seems to be a growing hobby for many vacationers.
Visiting Ben Franklin's Grave
The tourist trade is so lively at the historic Christ Church, around the corner from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, that they have a gift shop right in the cemetery. Church officials say 125,000 tourists visit the gravesites of 4,000 colonists annually.
The cemetery is the final resting place of Ben Franklin and other early prominent citizens, including Commodore William Bainbridge, a naval hero of the War of 1812; Dr. Benjamin Rush, father of American psychiatry, and Dr. Thomas Bond, founder of the nation's first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, right down the street.
An intriguing custom has developed at the cemetery over the last century. Tourists often throw pennies on Franklin's grave for good luck. Franklin, no doubt, would have been amused. One of his most favorite sayings was, "A penny saved is a penny earned."
They Died With Their Boots On
Out in Tombstone, Arizona, the view at the cemetery is markedly different. Boot Hill, which also boasts a gift shop on the premises, is what you might call a "faux cemetery." Oh, it does have some real remains from 19th century gunslingers, like Les Moore whose epitaph reads, "Hit by a .22. No Les, No More."
But the original wooden markers of the inhabitants have long since rotted away. They have been replaced with new markers guessing where each gunman was buried. Many of the deceased were never identified.
Goodbye, Mr. President
Some graveside visitors are selective. CSPAN's Brian Lamb, heads for presidential burial grounds.
Lamb says "Old Hickory," Andrew Jackson, and his wife, Rachel, are buried in the garden of the family home in Nashville. Thomas Jefferson has a grave at his Virginia home, Monticello, near Charlottesville. However, his tombstone doesn't bother to mention that he ever served as president but describes him as author of the Declaration of Independence and father of the nearby University of Virginia.
Musical Farewell
A guidebook, called "Tombstone Tourist," specializes in graves of prominent 20th century musicians, everyone from Duke Ellington, buried in a Bronx cemetery, to Tammy Wynette in Nashville.
The Far Side of Paradise
The great chronicler of the Roaring Twenties, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of "This Side of Paradise," and the "Great Gatsby," died in 1940 of a heart attack in Hollywood but he is buried in Rockville, Maryland, where his family has roots. Originally interred at Rockville Cemetery, he was re-interred in nearby St. Mary's Cemetery after his wife, Zelda, died in 1948.
The Fitzgerald gravesite is probably the major tourist attraction in the Washington suburb. On Fitzgerald's birthday, visitors bring flowers, packs of cigarettes—and bottles of liquor to honor the hard-drinking novelist.
In fact, remembering alcoholic authors who died prematurely seems to be a popular pastime. The horror writer, Edgar Allan Poe, author of the famed poem, "The Raven," is buried a few miles away in Baltimore and each fall, a mysterious visitor, cloaked in a black cape, drops a rose and a bottle of liquor on the grave. That has been going on for half a century and no one seems to know who the visitor, or visitors, is.
The Tearful Statue
Henry Adams, grandson of President John Quincy Adams, became a successful 19th century historian but tragedy struck in 1885 when his depressed young wife, Clover, killed herself. Adams commissioned a black bronze figure of a woman for the grave in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The story is that, on a moonlit night, tears can be seen coming from the woman's eyes.
The Bleeding Tombstone
There are numerous ghost tales involving graves. My favorite was described by the late Frederick, Maryland author, Alyce T. Weinberg, who told the story of a bleeding tombstone in the Maryland countryside.
The story goes that a young woman, who died in 1816, warned her husband that if he ever married a woman who mistreated the children, she hoped her tombstone would "bust and weep blood."
Old-timers in the region insist that has happened over the years and streaky red lines can still be seen on her tombstone.
Online Resources
Books
Find these books online at Barnes and Noble.com.
- Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites. Brian Lamb. Perseus Publishing. April 2003
- The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians. Scott Stanton. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing. September 2003
